Samsung's first 'curved' smartphone Galaxy Round, a 5.7-inch handset with a display that is slightly rounded on both sides, is seen at the Electronics and IT Industry Fair in Goyang, north of Seoul, on October 10, 2013. Samsung's first smartphone with a curved display screen enters the South Korean market on October 10, as the electronics giant seeks to maintain its lead in the increasingly saturated market. AFP PHOTO / JUNG YEON-JE (Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Images)

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)—Samsung has unveiled a new, curved smartphone called the Galaxy Round, but it will only be available to consumers in Korea. You might ask why? Well, it seems they’re doing it simply because they can.

It looks cool and they don’t expect to sell many, so I think it’s more to test a market for a curved-screen phone. You can rock it back and forth on the table and there’s a cool demo that shows if you tilt it a certain way, the screen lights up. It’s a bit of a gimmick.

In the long term, curve screens are very interesting. You could have a wrist-watch screen that literally wrapped around your wrist. This is going to bring on some very interesting technology with bendable, foldable screens. Eventually you’ll be able to fold it up and put it in your pocket. Maybe we’ll see an electronic newspaper, who knows?

Samsung’s Galaxy Round Bites Into Apple’s Innovative Reign

Samsung’s goal of basically doing anything that will make them look cooler than Apple is definitely near the top of their agenda. Apple has gotten so much credit in the past as being the best innovator, but Samsung has been stealing some of that thunder with cool looking products of their own. In the end it’s the consumer who wins.

(Copyright 2013 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Larry Magid is a technology journalist and an Internet safety advocate.
He serves as on-air technology analyst for CBS News, is co-director of ConnectSafely.org and founder of SafeKids.com. He also writes columns that appear on CNET New...